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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think I can teach DCs to swim?

52 replies

ePurSiMuove · 30/08/2018 10:57

Has anyone taught their child to swim without professional lessons? I really want to get the DCs swimming quickly to be safe around Water.

I can swim myself, relatively strong and did a few galas when younger. DCs 8 and 4 can’t swim yet, this has been mainly due to not being able to access a pool. We now have access to an indoor pool but there are no lessons available which fit with our work times etc. I can probably take them a couple of times a week.

It can’t be that difficult? Anyone done it and if so,

Is there a teaching programme available that I could follow? Is there a definite “right way” to learn?

If I teach them will I be teaching them bad habits which they won’t break?

How long is reasonable to expect a child to learn to swim ?

OP posts:
Birdsgottafly · 31/08/2018 12:35

I'm 51. I and my peer group at the time, lower income/large family area, were taught by older Siblings.

There were swimming baths all over he place and we took ourselves.

You can certainly teach them yourself. Later on, if there are swimming clubs that they want to attend, you might be able to do a lift share with other Parents. So they can still do their Badges.

My eldest went to formal lessons and was interested enough to do badges/awards.

She then, with me and my DH taught her younger Siblings to swim. They wasn't as interested as her in it, but are good swimmers who will snorkel etc on holiday.

bruffin · 31/08/2018 12:50

One of my parents' friends taught me. I don't think professional lessons existed when I was a kid.

im 56 and went to swimming lessons when i was 9

You can alwasy tell kids who have been taught by their parents. They dont know to breath and swim with heir heads up.

mumofanonly · 31/08/2018 12:52

I'm teaching my son the basics. He is 3.5 and can swim a few meters unaided. We go swimming regularly. I will put him in for professional lessons when he is a bit bigger

maZebraltov · 31/08/2018 12:56

I don't know you, OP, so I don't know what you can do.
The kids I have seen taught by their parents: not impressed.

The ordinary parents: the kids wouldn't drown but they had lousy technique and not very confident.

The parent who was a qualified swim teacher: she was a dragon in how she taught her daughters. Yes they swim like fish from early age, but omg at what cost. Would you like to be the 3yr old having to practice hard with kickboards in the middle of a fun session while the other kids rampaged around you being happy loonies. Just No.

I am self-taught only since my mid 20s (long story, lousy teaching as a kid & the idea of adult lessons even now completely demoralises me) and I'm probably full of terrible technique, too. I can't much rate school lessons either, but better than nothing. My kids had group paid-for lessons & are all fairly competent, 2000m & 5000m badges.

Seniorcitizen1 · 31/08/2018 12:58

My dad, who couldn’t swim, taught me to swim and I taught my son. So of course you can - don’t understand why people spend a fortune on lessons when it is so easy. Different if want to learn all the strokes or compete, but if all you want is to be able to save your life if you fall into water or enjoy time in a pool then lessons are not necessary

bruffin · 31/08/2018 13:00

Different if want to learn all the strokes or compete,
You need to know the strokes to swim properly.

soulrider · 31/08/2018 13:05

I used to give swim tests to see if children would be allowed to do various water sports, swim unsupervised etc. I used to fail a lot of children whose parents insisted they were strong swimmers but had never had formal lessons. Their idea of what was competent swimming and the reality were often miles apart. So I'd say it would be unusual for a parent to teach a child well without any swimming teaching background.

soulrider · 31/08/2018 13:07

And in a save your life scenario you want swimming to be second nature not 'Just enough'

Snappedandfarted2018 · 31/08/2018 13:12

I’m a swimming instructor, I also have a swimming background, I was in the local
club plenty of galas etc but teaching children is completely different to doing it yourself. I learned so much on how you teach children and develop each stages based on children’s capabilities. DD is our swimming school I don’t teach her but she loves the social aspect and seems to be coming on more so than if I tried to teach her myself.

AGirlinLondon · 31/08/2018 13:20

Had swim lessons when me and my sis were kids. Maybe the best thing my parents ever did for us.

We now both swim like fish and on holiday we freedive/scuba - I also do rescue. I think you certainly can teach yourself - but I will definitely send mine for lessons for the proper confidence and safety in the water stuff.

My mum also got an hour to herself at the gym we used!

littlepeas · 31/08/2018 13:21

Personally, I wouldn't. I think if you can afford lessons from a qualified teacher in any skill you wish your dc to acquire then that is what you should do. You could end up teaching them really badly, or it could be an awful, fraught experience each time you tried - I am a reasonably good pianist, but pay someone else to teach my dc. If it's a case of no availability, I would get them on the waiting list and then regularly take them 'fun' swimming to build water confidence in the meantime, but leave the actual teaching of technique, etc, to a qualified instructor.

Rednaxela · 31/08/2018 13:28

Depends by what you mean when you say "swimming". Do you mean confident in the water? Happy? Able to hold their breath and dive to the bottom to find interesting things? Aware of sea safety on holiday and able to have a nice swim with a snorkel? Able to do a perfect front crawl against a clock competitively? Able to do a marathon 50 lengths before school each day? Using a diving board to do a triple roll or whatever it's called? Winning trophies?

IStillDrinkCava · 31/08/2018 13:39

My parents taught me to swim... legs doggie paddle and arms breaststroke! Then they sent me to (excellent) swimming lessons and I started from scratch. I ended up with great technique and competed all the way through secondary, but I'm pretty sure it was despite those early lessons from my parents.

I think some people can teach their own children to swim, but I personally couldn't teach my two. But equally I think we start lessons a bit early, and most children in lessons at age 4 or 5 tend to make fairly slow progress and spend years on the weekly lesson treadmill. Take them for fun, get initial doggy paddle started and get them into good quality lessons when they're about 7. They'll be stronger, more co-ordinated and will learn faster.

user1483390742 · 31/08/2018 13:42

My brother taught me on holiday when i was 7 or 8.

JynxaSmoochum · 31/08/2018 13:43

I'm a decent swimmer but have no aspiration to teach my DCs myself. They go to lessons and DS1 is finding it slow going (DS2 quicker) He's just had a block of 1:1 lessons to progress him from something that he'd been stuck on for months. When we go swimming casually they just want to play and any of my attempts to help them are ignored.

4 years of school swimming lessons completely failed to get me swimming 10m. It took 1:1 with an adult in the water to help me learn the technique. After a few months of learning technique I then managed to build distance rapidly.

It is worth learning decent technique as it enables you to learn to swim further and faster if you wish, but if lessons aren't avaliable then teaching yourself is worth a try.

ChristianGreysAnatomy · 31/08/2018 13:47

Of course you CAN. It is possible.

But if your kids are at all like mine, they will listen to an instructor approx eleventy million times more readily than they will listen to you!!

Good luck!

cornflakegirl · 31/08/2018 14:24

If you can't do swimming lessons right now, then teaching them yourself will get them to the stage of being safe in the water. DS1 had around 6 years of swimming lessons, DS2 around 2 years (because he didn't enjoy them). DS1 can swim properly. DS2 mainly does doggy paddle. (I try to get him to do a proper front crawl, and he can, but he generally doesn't - see PP's comment about resisting instruction from a parent!) Both of them love going to the swimming pool.

Tragicroundabout · 31/08/2018 14:38

You can teach the basics, but my Mum taught me and unfortunately to this day I struggle to maintain any stroke other than breaststroke as that is the only stroke she could do!
BTW my kids attend a small rural school in Scotland and received swimming lessons - they were bussed to a pool about 30 mins away.

IStillDrinkCava · 31/08/2018 14:56

School lessons depend so much on the school. Ours get six lessons after their SATS in Y6.

CripsSandwiches · 31/08/2018 15:17

My DC have private lessons (wasn't much more expensive than group lessons and the instructor is great) and a lot of that has been water confidence (he's very nervous and fussy about going underwater) For DD it was actually the opposite - they're too confident and will happily launch themselves into the pool without the first clue how to stay a float.

I think to do it effectively you'd need to ready up a bit. A lot of it seems to be to do with co-ordination - finding a technique to help kids move legs and arms in synch etc. I also think you need to know when to do what - e.g. get the legs kicking strong enough and with a decent enough technique before worrying about the arms. Wiggles are also much better than arm bands or flats as they keep the child in the correct position.

fairislecable · 31/08/2018 15:36

The first thing to do is take your children every week to a pool. Play games jump in, blow bubbles under water.

Once they have confidence in the water (using supportive vests) they will be able to move in the right direction and therefore get the feel of moving in the water.

Each time you go take one child for a short time without a swimming aid on so they can practice kicking and supporting themselves.

They will learn to swim - but at this point they will need instruction for technique and breathing.

Swimming is a vital survival tool but you have to make it fun.

crosstalk · 31/08/2018 17:06

soul I think we're talking about someone to teach their non-swimming kids to swim (and an 8 year old who doesn't seem to be taught swimming at school even if in the curriculum as other PPs suggest). Clearly once they're confident with her they can go and swim train if that's what they want to do.

Set too high a bar and fewer will do it. Make sure they have water confidence, can swim x lengths and can float - and make sure they know the difference between a pool and rivers, lakes and seas - including tides, temperatures etc.

My DC learnt with us at 2.5 years old, was in a team at 7 - but even then the beautiful efficient crawl only came when at 11 and doing two miles a week in a pool. But has always known what to do in a riptide and how to evaluate water.

ForalltheSaints · 31/08/2018 17:07

I think if lessons are available you should have them for your DC.

Amummyatlast · 31/08/2018 17:12

My dad taught me to swim and I swim really badly. DD has lessons, as I want her to be able to swim properly.

3WildOnes · 31/08/2018 17:59

My children haven’t had formal lessons yet. My oldest 2 6&8 can swim 50-100m, jump in out of their depth, happily swim and splash around in lakes and rivers, snorkel and are fairly fast. Their technique is rubbish though so I will pay for formal lessons soon.

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